REVISION: Terminology and Definitions

THE HYPODERMIC NEEDLE MODEL.
from 1920's- suggests audience's passively absorb information without processing or challenging it. Still quoted today in debates such as the arguement as to whether violent games provoke violent behaviour.

TWO-STEP FLOW
from 1940's- new version as hypodermic needle model too clumsy. Suggests that the media is filtered through "opinion leaders" who communicate it to their less active associates. These less active people will then receive information from their "opinion leaders" and directly from the media and mediate it. This creates a two-step flow.

USES AND GRATIFICATIONS
In 1948, Lasswell suggested audiences used the media for:
-Surveillance
-Correlation
-Entertainment
-Cultural transmission.

Blulmer and Katz, 1974, extended it:
-Diversion- escape from everyday problems/routine
-Personal Relationships- soap operas and family life: emotional interaction etc
-Personal Identity- reflection in texts, own self relation to values/information/texts
-Surveillance- information for living e.g. weather, news.

GLOBAL VILLAGE
This is the thoery that the world is, metaphorically, much smaller than it used to be as an individual can talk to another person within seconds, even if they are the other side of the planet. Just as you would be able to in a village.

CONVERGENCE
The combining of the communications, electronics and computer industries. Also, the co-operation of various media companies with each other in order to take advantage (economically) of the newest technology.

DIGITISATION
conversion of analog information into digital information

SOCIAL NETWORKING
a social network is a network of people, for example:
You-your brother-your brother's friend-your brother's friend's girlfriend-your brother's friend's girlfriend's auntie.
you may not know everyone in the chain but you are still connected by your relationships to the other people. You may not even know the connection exists. Social Networking sites allow you to see connections that would be hidden in the "real" world as people add each other as friends on these sites and so allow their connections to be seen by others. it is said that everyone in the world is connected by six people, e.g. you know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows the Queen (or anyone else in the world.)

TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM
the view that the effects of any new technology on work and employment are simply defined (ie determined in a fixed way) by the inherent capabilities and functions of the technology itself. This is invariably criticized for ignoring factors in the context of work and the role of human agents.

WHAT DOES MC LARS THINK?

WEBSITE: www.mclars.com
MYSPACE PROFILE: http://www.myspace.com/mclars
ALSO, SEARCH HIM ON WIKIPEDIA.

MC Lars calls himself a "Post-Punk Laptop Rapper" as his music involves using his laptop to create and mix the sounds. (See his lyrics on other posts in this blog) He is currently playing the Give It A Name festival in the UK.

When i asked him whether he blogged and what he thought of it he replied:

"Blogging is an awesome instantaneous way to connect with 100's of people at once! I blog, but mainly through my video and audio podcasts.Thanks for using the lyrics in your research. We live in interesting times. :-)"

WHAT DO PAIGE THINK?

WEBSITE: www.paigeofficial.com
MYSPACE PROFILE:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=22296388

PAIGE are a band who have used MySpace in order to get to the level of popularity they are at now. The band are currently playing a festival alongside Bring Me The Horizon.

DO YOU BLOG? Yes, just to keep fans up to date with whats going on with the band.

DO YOU THINK BLOGGING HAS AFFECTED YOU AS A BAND? Myspace has definitly helped us get our music out there.

DO YOU THINK BLOGGING HAS A BIG AFFECT ON THE MUSIC INDUSTRY ALTOGETHER? dunno

...not the most expressive answers but an idea at least to how the NMT has affected them.

MC LARS: iGeneration

And people tried to put us down,
when iTunes bumped a post-Cold War sound.
My generation sat the mecca of malls,
Times Square, I'm there, Viacom installs.
So we hit the net while the Trade Center fell,
New York met Hollywood, we ran like hell.
No Vietnam for us, yo, Iraq it's on.
So who agree upon this cowboy Genghis Khan?
The choice made, baby. Hey we'd take it back,
logged in dropped out, MTV took track.
They sold it back to us and claimed no correlation.
The iMac, iPod, iGeneration.
And I'm waiting for the day we can get out.
The world is ours, that's the story no doubt.
Want to be more info super highway traffic,
want to be more than a walking demographic!

CHORUS:
"Hey! You're part of it." Talking about the iGeneration.
"Yeah! You're part of it." Talking about my iGeneration.

See the iGeneration knew organization
meant optimization
and unification,
When imagination
gave participation
in creation of culture
a manifestation.
The Berlin Wall fell and out we came,
the post-Cold War kids laid claim to AIM.
LOL, OMG, yo, BRB.
Space, colon, dash, closed parenthesis.
We sat at our laptops and typed away,
and found that we each had something to say.
Web-logged our fears, our hopes and dreams.
Individuated by digital means.
Fiber optic lenses, DVD,
Coca Cola, Disney and Mickey D's.
Flat mass culture, the norm that took hold
I hope I die before I get sold.

REPEAT CHORUS

This is the I-N-T-E-R-N-E-T ge-na-ra-tion, see?
This is the I-N-T-E-R-N-E-T ge-na-ra-tion, see?

GOOD WEBSITE:

http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/Main_Page

28TH APRIL: LESSON TIME

QUESTION 3 [45marks]
Essay Title: To what extent do new media technologies make people more creative? (Audience question, not institution.)

MY NMT CASE STUDY IS BLOGGING AND THE DEMOCRATISATION OF JOURNALISM.

New media technologies (NMTs) are seen to pave the way for new products, trends and possibilities for the future. Some say that this will make people more creative, the technology allowing them to put their ideas into action. Others say that it will cause people to much lazier; relying on technology to do all the hard work for them.

One NMT is Blogging, a technology which allows people to have their own space online where they can post text, videos, images and other forms of media and have it viewed publicly.

One way that this could make a User more creative is that they are given the chance to say whatever they want to say and fill their Blog with whatever they would like to show the public. This is a great opportunity and many have taken it upon themselves to post blogs covering every topic or subject that could ever be thought about. This is definite creativity that was never possible before as the only way to achieve this in the past was to have a radio show, be a hired Journalist or be on the television...and even then your views would be censored or filtered if they didn't fit in with the views of the company you were working for.

On the other hand you could say that this creativity will cause laziness in others: instead of actively searching for information in the real world and experiencing things for themselves, they are glued to their computers and other ports of access to the Internet finding things out from other people, depending on other sources of information for their knowledge. This will be detrimental to the creativity of these people as they will become reliant on others and will become content with other people's contributions.

The technology of Blogging is taken further into making people more creative and interactive as many use their blogs to write news stories or comment on news from around the world. This democratisation of journalism promotes creativity as it is not just the big businesses and tabloid papers who are searching for the new stories and new things to write about: it’s the every day blogger searching for their next post too. To become popular and to write a frequently read blog, the blogger needs new and interesting stories and information in order to keep the reader interested.

Blogging has a lack of censorship; many host sites that allow Users to create blogs will have little in the way of rules for content. Myspace does not allow the use of pornographic images but otherwise does not filter the large amount of information that appears on their site. To protect themselves they disassociate themselves with any of the individual views expressed by users of the site which basically grants users the permission to write whatever they want, even if it may hurt another person. Although this allows for creativity as Users are unrestrained, it is a common fear that young people and children using the sites could be put at risk as although there is no age limit for using the site, there is some content which may not be suitable for a young audience.

Another fear is that children are being targeted by paedophiles on Internet networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook and Bebo: the three biggest online networking sites created. People are definitely getting creative by pretending to be people they are not in order to take advantage of others, a practise which parents rightly worry over and children may not fully understand the implications of. Creativity is often put to good use with new technology and ideas emerging all the time, but it can be used very wrongly too. Paedophilia is not the only problem as Phishers (hacking in order to gain access to Users information such as log in details and passwords.), Hackers and Fraudsters are finding more and more ways to carry out illegal actions as they become more and more creative with the technology they are using.

After studying Blogging and the democratisation of Journalism, I think that this NMT advances creativity as it does not curb further ideas, but instead helps those without the technical knowledge show their own creativity in a technological world.

ISSUES: Illegal activity? increased spending? harm children?

Blogging creates some issues for society as well as being an enjoyable and creative hobby.

Some of the content written about is untrue or poorly researched and as the blogs go unchecked, no one points out the errors. This could mean that readers understand the blog content to be true when it is in fact not. This could cause problems if the blog is of a serious nature and could hurt people for instance if the blog reported on "news stories" and posted stories that were untrue or incorrectly detailed.

Another issue is that it promotes the constant use of the computer. There are people who spend their lives indoors, always on the computer! This is a very unhealthy and anti-social way to live.
(On the other hand it could be argued that this is in fact a VERY social way to live, as some of the most commonly viewed sites on the Internet involve social networking and blogging where communicating with others from around the world is the point of the excercise.)

My third issue with blogging is that of its unsuitability in terms of young people and children who may read or see something that is not suitable for their age group as blogging is not restricted or censored in any way and many do not contain warnings about their content. Also, through networking sites, children and young people may be targeted by paedophiles posing themselves as someone they are not. There is no proof on the internet that the person you are talking to is really who they say they are and so children may be taken advantage of.

blogging does not cost money and so does not increase spending (unless a person is on dial up/pay as you go internet and therefore may begin to use the internet more often, costing more money.) and is not illegal.

AUDIENCE: How is this technology consumed?

This technology is consumed in many ways. All you need is the internet and this can be accessed through many makes of computer, mobile phone, PDA and even MP3 players such as the ipod Touch.

It is consumed in great amounts too:

There are few credible estimates about the number of online blogs (one enthusiast tracks offline - ie dead - blogs here) or their growth. Many figures are contradictory or merely self-serving.Wired News noted claims that in January 2002 alone some 41,000 people created new blogs using Blogger and that there were now more than 500,000. In August 2002 another source claimed that Blogger had 350,000 users, with converts supposedly "creating a new weblog every 40 seconds, or more than 60,000 a month". By early 2006 that had risen to around 160,000 per month (albeit with many splogs), subsequently declining to 100,000 per month.In September 2002 the New York Times reported that LiveJournal had signed up 690,000 users since 1998 and was currently gaining another 1,100 bloggers per day. It is unclear whether all 690,000 were (and still are) maintaining their personal pages and, if so, how frequently. In the same month the Times claimed that Brazil was the "second-largest Blogger-using country" after the US, with up to 13% of the 750,000 Blogger users.In June 2003 Blogcount estimated that there were between 2.4 million to 2.9 million active blogs. As a point of reference that is around 10% of the number of dot-com registrations (although most blogs do not have unique domain names). Blogcount attributed over 1.6 million active users to the three largest centrally hosted services. PointBlog.com noted in June 2003 that a WHOIS registry database search identified over 10,000 'com', 'org', 'net', info', 'biz' and 'us' domains with "blog" in the name. The US National Institute for Technology & Liberal Education (NITL) BlogCensus at that time identified 655,631 'blogs', with a substantial margin of error and a note that around 30% were 'inactive'. An October 2003 report by Perseus Development on The Blogging Iceberg claimed that
Based on the rapid growth rate demonstrated by the leading services, Perseus expects the number of hosted blogs created to exceed five million by the end of 2003 and to exceed ten million by the end of 2004.

AUDIENCE: What are audiences NOT doing so they can spend more time interacting with new media technologies?

http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/787852/Regionals-put-faith-online-print-circulations-decline/

this article explains and shows statistics for the decline in newspaper circulation as people are turning to the internet and free newspapers for their information instead of buying as was once the most popular way.

NMT's are meaning that many newspapers are severely loosing readers. Many are trying to rebrand and recreate themselves to curb the decline and many such as the guardian have created a more interactive website which allows readers to read the news online and find out information from there rather than turning to other places.

AUDIENCE: What are audiences doing with their new media technologies

Blogging is used for many different reasons, but a main theme is telling the world what you know. Being able to write whatever you want and having these views completely accessible to the general public is the ultimate in having your voice heard. And this power is attractive to the opinionated, the open-minded and the previously silenced of today.

The Internet largely depends on other peoples knowledge and input as otherwise networking sites, search engines, interactive encyclopedias...etc.etc. would be empty.

AUDIENCE: Now and Then

In both of the world wars information was censored in order to stop important data getting into the wrong hands and to keep up morale in the public. Often photographs and news was circulated that portrayed a completley different story to what was really going on. Pictures of bomb-wrecked homes and the dead were not allowed to be shown, replaced with pictures of apparent victory over the enemy and smiling faces. Since the public had few ways to find out what was going on, they had to trust that what they were being told was true. Even letters from soldiers were censored; information about the true horrors of war having been removed and even replaced with lies about how they were having a good time!

Today, if we were to be placed in the same situation, technological advances and the democratisation of journalism (everyone having an equal chance to have their say and, in a sense, become a journalist.) would mean censorship would be ineffective.

If discussion boards exist for trivial topics, its clear that many millions of blogs, chat room topics and discussion boards would spring up over new information and advances in the war. The entire public would know where the fighting was taking place, the people involved, who was winning, the damage done, the names of the dead...The government would have no way of controlling the spread of information.

AUDIENCE: How are traditional experiences of the media changing?

If you were to ask a Grandparent, or even a parent, what their experiences of media technologies were when they were our age they would most likely say Newspapers, Magazines, Books...Radio, Vinyl Records and maybe a Television with four channels. Most would also claim that they had a perfectly good source of information from these technologies.

If you wanted to know the The News you would listen to the Radio, watch the News at 10 or 6 or read a daily newspaper where hired and paid Journalists would report the stories that were said to be relevant to the reader: war, disaster, politics and business. It was the definite fourth estate, reporting on nothing except the other three.

Since the creation of the Internet and, possibly even more importantly, web 2.0 (the ability to interact with and add ones own knowledge to a site) for a modern day person who wishes to know the days news there is a realm of ways of going about it. Similarly to the past, you could indeed pick up a newspaper or listen to the radio but this is very linear media as the User is dictated to as and when they can find information: the News on the radio is only on every couple of hours. This way of finding the news may also not be accurate or as up-to-date as you'd hope; the articles have often been written a day or so before and so will not have details on THAT DAYS events.

In the past we would have to give up our search and wait for the next news announcement or be content with waiting till the following days newspaper but today society is rocketing forward at an astonishing pace: no one has the time to wait!

Impatience has paved the way creatively for new technology. This generation of people will be very much accustomed to knowing everything as soon as anyone else does. A bomb goes off in a distant town, on the other side of the world? within minutes there will be reports, photographs and videos plastered over the Internet for the entire public to see. RSS links allow the news to be fed directly to you with texts and updates on your mobile, whilst sites on the Internet offer email updates so that you are constantly kept "in the loop".

This global village effect means that nothing is secret anymore: if you know about it, chances are definite that people the other side of the planet will also know about it. Now thats something to tell your Grandad.

AUDIENCE: New technology...Active or Lazy?

The modern audience is far more active in their knowledge than past generations. If we don't know the answer to something, it is an immidiate response to look it up (google.com, wikipedia.com and others all contribute to this "ask, search, know" trend.).

There are two ways of looking at this approach: less or more LAZY.

We could be said to be more active: not satisfied with the unknown, we search and discover the things we want to know, opening our eyes to new things all the time seeing as the internet allows us to have the world at our fingertips.

We could be said to be less active: sitting in front of a computer or fiddling with mobile phones in order to find things out rather than experiencing and learning things for ourselves as others did. Sites such as www.toptipsforgirls.com use this approach as a point of attraction for their users, saying that their website offers a host of tips given by women in order to save you from having to find them yourself.

"Top Tips For Girls harnesses the awesome power of pooled resources; it's like being in the bathroom at a party with millions of women, all of whom want to give you advice."

I personally think its a bit of both, with Blogging allowing people to make millions from their armchairs (Advertisers will pay a large amount to advertise on a popular blog.) and the wealth of information readily available encouraging the world to be disatisfied with ignorance and persistantly challenging the extents of knowledge in the world.

BLOG EXAMPLE: POSTSECRET

http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/ (http://www.postsecret.com/) is an ongoing art project created by Frank Warren where people from all over the world are invited to send in their secrets on the back of a homemade postcard. At first it was a small project: postcards with the instructions and address were left in public places inviting people to take part but it soon grew into a world wide epidemic, with people sending in postcards covered in secrets ranging from the light and comic, to the dark and serious. PostSecret is now in its fourth year of running and the blog, where roughly 20 new secrets are posted every sunday, has been running since 2005. The project is so big, it even has its own range of books:
- PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions From Ordinary Lives
-My Secret: A PostSecret Book
-The Secret Lives Of Men And Women: A PostSecret Book
-A Lifetime Of Secrets: A PostSecret Book
Each of these books contains almost 300 pages: each one a different, full colour postcard showing a secret that someone sent to Frank.

Many blogs allow users to post comments and from June 24, to July 3rd 2007 PostSecret readers were also allowed to post comments on secrets or even post their own secrets. Although many of the comments were of praise for those who had shared their secrets, many felt that it was not right that the secrets, for which the point was that by being on the site they were not judged, were being "commented" on by others in an often abusive way: one that was not characteristic of the project. This lead to the comments option being disabled in favour of comments being emailed to Frank directly with him sometimes choosing relevant or supportive comments to be posted alongside postcards.

In October 2007, the PostSecret community was launched (http://www.postsecretcommunity.com/) which was an unrelated site where PostSecret readers could discuss the weeks secrets and post their own. Although there are still people who think this affects the anonymity of the project, the community is generally seen to be a positive place where more than 10,000 users have registered to take part in discussions.

In the past, this project may have been possible, but would not have taken off in the way that it has as there would be no public outlet for the thousands of Postcards that are sent in every day. The project was originally designed for an art exhibition in New York in 2004, but has carried on due to its popularity and its ability to be viewed easily all over the planet. Every week the new secrets posted on the site inspire others to send in their own. The only two rules are that the secrets must be true and must never have been spoken before.


"When I give PostSecret presentations at college campuses, my hope is that people I have never met will be inspired to change their lives through the secrets and stories being shared. Not long ago, at one of my talks, it was my life that was changed, and the secret that inspired me came from a stranger in the front row.
I began my presentation by handing out blank postcards to everyone in the auditorium. I invited each person to anonymously write down a secret on a card and then pass it on. For the next hour, the postcards circulated and were read silently multiple times. At the end of my talk, I asked if anyone would like to stand and read the secret they were holding at that moment. A man in the front row stood up and haltingly read:
I wish I could apologize to my younger brother for the way I treated him growing up.He sat down and exchanged a long look with the young man next to him. After more volunteers read aloud some of the other secrets that had been passed around, I collected all the cards. The man in the front row handed me the postcard he had read from, and the two men walked out together.
His postcard was blank.
I have witnessed many times how the courage of sharing a secret can be contagious. When I realized that the man had been pretending to read someone else’s secret and that the person he had left with was likely his brother, I was inspired.
Growing up, I was not an ideal older brother. As an adult, I have wished for an opportunity to apologize for some of my actions but did not want to open old wounds. I have not shared this secret with my brother . . . until now."
-Frank Warren

TECHNOLOGY: who has been responsible for developing it?

Blogging began with a slow start as it was limited to those who knew how to create their own websites allowing them to write blogs. In 1999 blog creating became more popular as the first host sites which created a pre-made structure for the user were created.

OpenDiary launched in October 1998 and was not only one of the first host sites, but was the first site which allowed other users to leave comments on people's blogs. This opened up new types of blogging as people began to blog more for the benefit of others such as stating their views in order for people to comment on them. In school the comment button on Blogger is used by mrs Johnson to leave comments on our homework :]

Livejournal and Blogger.com, amongst others, began soon after.

Blogging is a technology which the user develops: a structure is presented by the host site and the user then adds text or other medias in order to create their own personal piece. So in effect, it is constantly being developed with new blogs being written and new topics being covered every day.

TECHNOLOGY: New or Old media?

The technology for Blogging has been around since the early 1990's as people began creating bulletin boards (a kind of virtual pin board where people could have discussions). Soon after Online Diaries became more popular with people recording their personal lives on their own sites on the internet and mostly naming themselves Diarists, Journalists or Journalers. Justin Hall is recognised as one of the earliest bloggers as he began in 1994 although the term Weblog was not coined until 1997.

Therefore, blogging is a relatively new media and is not an old media undergoing radical transformation but rather is still growing.

TECHNOLOGY: Hot/Cold media? Push/Pull technology?

Blogging is a Cold media as it requires a large amount of participation from the user in order for anything to be written. The reader is presented with, effectively, a blank canvas and it is up to the user to create the content.

In terms of whether it is a Push or Pull technology, I think blogging is both as hosting sites advertise themselves across the internet in order to attract users and so is a Push technology, but also depend on the publicity and popularity of their users blogs in order to attract users.

TECHNOLOGY: Who provides it? Cost?

Blogging can be done in a number of different ways. In the beginning bloggers had to have the skills to make their own website in order to be able to write their blogs but now, partly due to the development of Web 2.0, wannabe bloggers who are limited by their technological skills can use hosting sites such as blogger.com which provides the structure and technical stuff of a blog without the blogger needing to do more than log in and type.

Most of these host websites cost nothing to sign up for and to use as they get their money through advertising on the website and often on your blog.

TECHNOLOGY: Marketing Blogs

Blogging is open to anyone and everyone, from whatever age, race or gender. All you need is access to the internet (and the ability to type!).

Search engines like Google and Ask Jeeves all include blogs in their results so a blog can easily be found online and similarly blogs can easily be created as speciality sites, such as this one, make it easy for a blogger to get started straight away for free.

Having the ability to not only log your personal opinions and talk about the things that interest you, but to have them heard by anyone willing to read them is a very attractive opportunity to people these days when the status of celebrity and the desire to be famous is rife in society. Bloggers such as Perez Hilton (http://perezhilton.com/) have reached this status, or a similar status with their blogs. Perez Hilton in particular blogs about gossip and rumours in the world of celebrity and often appears in magazines and on radio and television, discussing this "news" as he is seen as a reliable source of information.

TECHNOLOGY: Genres of blogging?

As previously mentioned, there are many different types of blogs ranging from the professional and official, to the personal and casual. Here are some of the types and ways they can be grouped:

PERSONAL BLOGGING
This type of blogging is the most common and also the traditional genre of blog. Personal Blogs can take on a diary like structure; with entries detailing the events and encounters of a blogger's life or can just be an open discussion of the blogger's personal thoughts and opinions. In some cases it becomes a way of keeping in touch with family and friends. For example, my uncle keeps a blog so that the people he knows can keep informed about my cousins, Ciara and Finn as they live in Ireland- a long way away from anyone else in the family!

CORPORATE BLOGS
A blog can be totally private or only open to selected readers making it ideal to post information that only a group of people need access to. For example a business might post a blog about targets or updates that only its employees can have access to. Corporate blogs can also be external as they may involve PR, Branding or Marketing and be used as a way of publicising the business.

MEDIA TYPE
Blogs can be separated into media types such as a Vlog (a blog of videos), a Sketchblog (a blog of sketches and drawings) and a Photoblog (a blog of photos). A blog which contains a mixture of these is often referred to as a Tumblelog and you can also find an Artlog: a blog containing art from different bloggers, used as a way of publicising and sharing art.

DEVICE
Blogs can also be separated into groups depending on the device used to write them. For instance if a blog was written using the internet on a mobile phone it is referred to as a Moblog.

GENRE
Blogs can be separated into genre too seeing as there are literally thousands of blogs around. Blogs go into categories such as Fashion blogs, Political blogs, Hobby blogs and Legal blogs (often called Blawgs). There is also a type of blog designed soley for people to spam, although it is uncommon. This is called a Splog.

TECHNOLOGY: What is it?

'Weblog' is both a noun and a verb (the term was created by Jorn Barger in 1997) and is a new technology which is currently sweeping the world. Commonly shortened to 'Blogging' (The word 'blog' originating from Peter Merholz who separated the word 'weblog' on his own blog into "we blog" in 1999), this new phenomenon uses internet web sites such as www.blogger.com to allow users to type whatever they want and save it on their own 'Blog', also allowing others to read what they have written and often leave comments.

People all over the world regularly post entries on their own blogs and entries can range from political views to homework assignments to personal diaries. Anything can be blogged and nothing is regulated so there are many different types of blogs out there and all sorts of different views.

Some blogs have become very popular, with more people reading the updates all the time. An example is a blog written by the chinese actress Xu Jinglei. The page has had over 50 million views and has been rated the most popular by Technorati (a site developed to track blogs)

Case Study: Article

This post is a summary and evaluation of this article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/09/internet.web20

Recently, using the internet as a forum for discussion and social networking has become very popular and more people become regular users of sites that allow them to communicate with people all over the world every day.

This article dicusses an example of the WE THINK theory which is where people from all over the world collaborate their creativity and intelligence in order to make sense of, in this example, a puzzle set out by a gaming advertisement.

Over four months 600,000 people began joining groups, setting up blogs and creating bulletin boards in order to solve the puzzle that was originally started by a website being written on an advert for the new "Halo" game.

a series of tests involving public phone boxes and being able to be in the right place and answer the right questions at the right time was incredibly completed perfectly. without the use of the bulletin boards, blogs and websites the people who cracked the puzzle would not have been able to do so, or even known there was anyone else in the world who was trying to solve the riddles. The accuracy with which the tests were completed was made possible by the technology used to talk to each other. The world is no longer a big place...

Chosen Area For Case Study

For my case study i have chosen to study
"Blogging and democratisation of Journalism."
I have chosen this area as i am very interested in journalism and blogging and think this is an area that i will enjoy researching.

I read an article on blogging recently (http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_cox/2007/03/whats_a_blog_1.html) which discussed the way most blogs are written, the attitude many 'bloggers' have towards their writing and whether this is democratising journalism. According to the writer, David Cox, "The democratisation of journalism will require more than immediacy, spontaneity and a breathless sense of fun."

Definitions (From Podcast and Booklet)

PERSONALISATION
a characteristic of many NMTs is their ability to offer users a personalised experience. For example, Sky+ allows users to personalise their viewing schedule including the ability to pause live TV and automatically record their favourite programmes. Ipods and the Itunes store allow music to be more personalised than ever, with users enjoying the ability to buy just the tracks they want from an album and then listen to them anywhere.

LINEAR/NON-LINEAR
Linear experiences are those that move in a straight line from start to finish. Watching a film at the cinema is a very linear experience in that you start watching at the beginning of the film and and finish watching it when it ends. Interactive TV allows the audience to experience programmes in a number of ways by offering features such as an alternative voiceover, extra video footage or explanatory text. When used, each individual will have a unique experience of the programme depending on when he or she presses the red button. the viewing experience therefore can be described as non-linear.

What is the Fourth Estate?

What is the fourth estate? Is new media technology responsible for the decline in newspapers?
What does it mean "maybe the internet is already the cyberspace of the fourth estate"?

The Fourth Estate is the name given to the press and according to Edward Burke is the most important estate (the others being the courts, religion and parliament).

I think new media technology is responsible for the decline in newspapers because it makes news and information immediatley available and incredibly accessible for all people wherever they are. You can access it over the phone, internet, mp3...in fact almost any device.
this emphasizes the meaning of "maybe the internet is already the cyberspace of the fourth estate?" because, as newspapers were once the easiest way to know what was going on in the world, the internet is now an even easier, FREE way. Why buy a 35p newspaper when you can read the whole thing online for free and not have to deal with inky fingers and crumpled paper... :]

My Evaluation

I'm pleased with my coursework grade and think i have performed well on this course so far- probably because i enjoy the subject.
i like constructing products using photoshop/publisher but i find writing the reports difficult.

issues institutions audiences

Digitality
New way of encoding information in a series of either noughts or ones (binary) huge amounts of information can be dealt with in these tiny pieces of code.

Interactivity
New ways of streaming compressed information:
-air e.g. satellites
-phone cables
-ISDN cables e.g. broadband
-cable cable e.g. cable satellite systems
by having the information compressed we can transport more pieces of information as it doesn’t take up so much room when being sent.
Because its interactive, it means you can interact with it, interact with other, get it to respond and reply to it. It means you can upload as well as download

Hypertextuality
Media is no longer linear like on a VHS (A-B-C pathway), its more liquid so the viewer can choose what they would like to do, for example on a DVD (Viewer can choose own pathway) and on an MP3 where a viewer can choose to shuffle songs rather than listen to the whole album in order.
Makes a difference for the people who produce the texts

Dispersal
How information can be and is shared and communicated. To do with market share, size and take-up (who's using it.). how much access users have and how producers target users and maximise their markets. couple with digitality creates huge market for producers

Virtuality
Already-discussed ideas linking with reality and representation. Verisimilitude, like iconography, is how real something is. cartoons are representational. some virtual worlds also representational. what is real? mimicking and representation of the world. who, why and how?

Convergence
New technologies merging into one, like companies. MP3's showing photos. where will it go next and will people use it? Think about size: both of data and hardware, new possibilities

Audience
How does the audience use the technology? Do they actually use it? has it changed the way they use it? did they use it before and has it changed the way they use it if it has been updated? has the technology been led by consumer demand or by the industry? have the people who've made it made us think that we want it? who actually has access to these things? who is disenfrancised?


Regulation and control
Is there any control over the technology's use? who's doing the controlling and should it be there in the first place? what's done about copyright issues? What are the implications of control and people subverting it? is it realistically possible to have this control? what impact of this on the producers? what potential impact is there for the government?

Ownership
who owns the technology and does it make a difference? how much money they have, use the market, compete with one another and how they use their money and their brand to sell various things: games console manufacturing is a good example of this.

Moral Panics- Second Life

Think back to our discussions on Second Life. What are the social concerns of the development of the kind of technology discussed in this article? How is it changing the way we interact? What are the issues on control and censorship? Who is left behind? Post an entry of 300w in response to these questions. Do some of your own research and find actual examples to back up your points.

Second Life, as explained in a previous blog, is mostly viewed as a very positive step forward in the world of technology. It allows users to interact with each other and the system itself which is generally thought to be a sociable and enjoyable experience…but there are exceptions.

There are many things that, morally, could go wrong in Second Life and cause a bit of panic to spread amongst users and the relations of users. For one, children can easily use Second Life whilst lying about their age making them vulnerable to paedophiles and general abuse online. Two, there are suggestions that it can be used by terrorists to communicate and plot attacks and Three: it can ruin marriages.
Max, 39, isn’t sure what drove his soon-to-be-ex-wife to have a relationship in Second Life. He says she refused to talk about it, and if he asked questions, she’d just hop online and freeze him out.
“I thought she was going through a depression and she’d get bored and move on with life,” he says. “But she kept getting deeper and deeper.”

Within six months of signing up for Second Life, Max’s wife was spending up to eight hours a day online — and even more on the weekends. She and her in-world boyfriend were in constant contact — even when they weren’t in-world. Max says he found out later that his wife and her avatar boyfriend were having drinks together — in his house — via Web cam.
Max went on Google and started doing some detective work. To his amazement, he learned that his wife had married her in-world boyfriend in Second Life.
“I had my dad looking over my shoulder at the stuff I was finding,” he says. “Just so I could ask him ‘Am I crazy? Am I really seeing this?’”
Max ended up pulling the Internet connection out of the wall, and he says his wife started trashing the house. The end came, says Max, when she threw a punch.
“I’m 6 foot, 200 pounds,” he says. “When she took a swing, I said, ‘no, we’re not going past this point.’” The two are currently finalizing divorce proceedings.
Although Max’s wife did end up meeting her virtual boyfriend in the real world, that often isn’t the case with virtual relationships. Sarah had a plane ticket bought and plans to meet her virtual partner, Martin — but she canceled her trip.
“One day I had the realization that I didn’t really want that guy,” she says. “What I wanted was for my husband to treat me like that guy.”
Sarah and her husband split up, and have since divorced. But Sarah credits Second Life with showing her what she wanted from a partner — attention, affection and romance. She gets all that from her current real-life boyfriend — a guy Sarah says she’ll probably marry.
And even though Sarah’s boyfriend didn’t ask her to, she ended her Second Life relationship last year. As a result, she doesn’t go in-world that much anymore.
“I decided that I didn’t want to partition my love,” she says. “I just wanted to have one person to call ‘sweetheart.’”

Copying Music Legally

From now on, all music lovers will no longer have to worry about breaking the law whenever they fill their MP3 or make a mix CD to play in the car.

For ages it has been the case that any time a person made a copy of music (such as uploading music onto an MP3) it was technically against the law- an infringement of copyright.

Thankfully this has now changed as the industry agreed that a user should not be punished for changing the format of their music. So long as the user sticks to the rules (you are not allowed to give away or sell the copied material or the original and it must be for personal use only) you are no longer breaking the law. HURRAH!

Iphone

In January 2007, Apple announced to the world the plans for their new product: The iphone.

By June 2007 the iphone (the internet-enabled multimedia mobile phone with multi-touch screen, virtual keyboard and buttons, built-in camera, portable media player, text messaging and visual voicemail, internet services such as email, web browsing and local wi-fi connectivity, has international capability AND supports the Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) data technology) was available in the states on the network AT&T and by November was available in the UK on the network provider O2.

"The layout of the music library differs from previous iPods, with the sections divided more clearly alphabetically, and with a larger font. Similar to previous iPods, the iPhone can sort its media library by songs, artists, albums, videos, playlists, genres, composers, podcasts, audiobooks, and compilations. Cover Flow, like that on iTunes, shows the different album covers in a scroll-through photo library. Scrolling is achieved by swiping a finger across the screen.

Like the fifth generation iPods introduced in 2005, the iPhone can play video, allowing users to watch TV shows and films. Unlike other image-related content, video on the iPhone plays only in the landscape orientation, when the phone is turned sideways. Double tapping switches between wide-screen and fullscreen video playback.

The iPhone allows users to purchase and download songs from the iTunes Store directly to their iPhone over Wi-Fi, but not over the cellular data network."

Sharing Information Online

"Download this Song" by MC Lars
It's 2006, the consumer’s still p*****
Won't take it anymore so I’m writing a list
Don't try to resist this paradigm shift
The music revolution cannot be dismissed
$18.98 Iggy Pop CD?
What if I can get it from my sister for free?
It’s all about marketing Clive Davis, see?
If fans buy the shirt then they get the mp3
Music was a product now it is a service
Major record labels why are you trying to hurt us?
Epic’s up in my face like, “Don’t steal our songs Lars,”
While Sony sells the burners that are burning CD-R’s
So Warner, EMI, hear me clearly
Universal Music, update your circuitry
They sue little kids downloading hit songs
They think that makes sense
When they know that it’s wrong

Hey Mr. Record Man
The joke’s on you
Running your label
Like it was 1992
Hey Mr. Record Man,
Your system can’t compete
It’s the New Artist Model
File transfer complete
Download this song!

I know I'm rhyming fast, but the message is clear
You don’t need a million dollars to launch a career
If your style is unique and you practice what you preach
Minor Threat and Jello both have things to teach!
I've got G5 production, concept videos
Touring with a laptop, rocking packed shows
The old-school major deal? It makes no sense
Indentured servitude, the costs are too immense!
Their finger’s in the dam but the crack keeps on growing
Can’t sell bottled water when it’s freely flowing
Record sales slipping, down 8 percent
Increased download sales, you can't prevent
Satellite radio and video games
Changed the terrain, it will never be same
Did you know in ten years labels won't exist?
Goodbye DVD’s, and compact disks!

You know, we just wanted a level playing field.
You’ve overcharged us for music for years, and now we’re
Just trying to find a fair balance. I hate to say it, but…
Welcome to the future.
END OF SONG

Since the internet and other digital advances have become a central part of the economy, people have been sharing information...and this doesnt mean only music.

People have been using blogs, newsgroups, email and file sharing sites (e.g. Limewire) to swap information since it first became an option and now that it has become an epidemic; the International Federation of Phonographic Industries being just one of the companies setting out to stop the sharing.

Journalists have lost jobs due to newspapers and magazines having to downsize and from people ripping off their work and claiming it as their own by posting it on online blogs...
mechanics are loosing their jobs due to people being able to learn "the tricks of the trade" online...
and grannies are loosing their rag after finding their knitting patterns being eagerly shared online.

even pornography is loosing out.

Tell Me The Future

1. Who is Chris De Wolfe and what does he say is the future for social networking? What impact will portable hardware have on this area of technology?

Chris De Wolfe is the Co-Founder of Myspace.com: a website which allows users to create an individual profile where you can create blogs, post pictures and interact with other users over the one website- basically put their entire offline lives online. This website is an example of web 2.0.

He claims that “more than ever, social networks are blurring online and offline worlds, evolving into social destinations that are driving the direction of the larger web and affecting industries like advertising, music and politics.
Predicting the future of social networks exclusively misses the larger point - these evolving online social destinations are laying the groundwork for the new social web which we believe is becoming infinitely more personal, more portable, and more collaborative.”

This idea of the online world becoming more portable is fast becoming reality as almost everything, including mobile phones and hand held games consoles, have immediate access to the internet, all over the world: “In terms of mobile, we expect to have relationships with every carrier and device-maker in the world and we expect that half of our future traffic will come from non-PC users.”

De Wolfe also thinks that creativity and development are collaborative concepts: the future of the social web will harness the savvy of the masses to produce more relevant and meaningful social experiences, ultimately pushing the larger industry to be more innovative and progressive.

The online world is looking to move forward creatively, interactively and portably- whilst still being personal and engaging for the user.

2. Who is Chad Hurley and what does he say is his company's goal? Is he a positive or negative technological determinist?

Chad Hurley is the CEO and Co-founder of YouTube: a website which allows users to upload and view videos quickly and easily for free. He says that “In five years, video broadcasting will be the most ubiquitous and accessible form of communication. The tools for video recording will continue to become smaller and more affordable. Personal media devices will be universal and interconnected. People will have the opportunity to record and share video with a small group of friends or everyone around the world.”

Every day, Eight hours worth of video are uploaded onto YoutTube every MINUTE and this figure is still growing rapidly. The aim is to make uploading and viewing videos as simple “as making a phone call” and put the user directly in the centre of their video experience: completley in control and able to share anything from family videos to news and sport, and then view it from their living room…or their pocket.



3. What does Maurice Levy say is the challenge for advertisers and what is 'liquid media' compared to 'linear media'?

Maurice Levy (Chairman and CEO, Publicis Groupe) claims that the new challenge for advertisers in this age is engaging an audience who, due to such developments as Sky+ (the ability to rewind and fast forward programmes, effectively giving the user the ability to miss the adverts), are no longer required to watch advertisements. Advertisers are being made to become far more creative and innovative in the way they attract an audience and with the advances in technology far more options are open to them.

Linear media is where a user is taken from point A to point B with no other options in between, such as on VHS where the user can rewind and fast-forward between the beginning and end but effectively has nowhere else to go. In contrast to this we now have liquid media where the user is free to navigate wherever they want however they want. For example we have DVDs, where the user is presented with a menu filled with different options, allowing the user to move between the options in a free and unrestricted way.

4. What parallels does Norvig draw between Edison inventing electricity and the development of online technology in terms of searching for information? (tricky question - read this section carefully)

Peter Norvig (Director of Research, Google) says that just as when Edison invented electricity, he knew its usefulness and some of its possibilities (such as light) but couldn’t possibly have predicted the devices we have now (computers, mp3s, microwaves, televisions…the list can go on forever!) just as in the future information will come to us and pave the way for the creation of devices we haven’t even imagined yet. Edison created electricity and got light; we type a keyword into Google and get some websites. From Edison’s discovery we have the appliances we see as common today; from our discoveries into technology we have access to a whole new way of finding information.


5. What are the issues for the developing world? How is this evidence of a 'digital divide'? (socio-economic divide due to access to technology)